1899] THE HABITS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 21 
play and learn to swim in safety. Such bays are to be found on 
Copper Island at Gavarushkaya and Sikatchinskaya, while parts of 
the great northern rookery of Bering’s Island are fairly well protected 
from storms. Thus on shore all sorts of ground seem suited to their 
wants, except, as already noticed, flat sandy areas, and beaches in the too 
close proximity of overhanging cliffs. Here landslips have been known 
to occur, burying and killing a number of the cows, as at Palata in 
Copper Island; while at Orilli Kamen, another Copper Island rookery, 
I found the skeletons of three unfortunates (one of which at least was 
a bull) under a great boulder which had fallen down from the cliff 
above the rookery and crushed them. But perhaps their most favourite 
haunts are cliffs where the slope is not very steep and large boulders 
lie plentifully strewn on the face. Here they ascend often to a 
height of a hundred feet or more, easily traversing places where a man 
could hardly climb. Such cliffs are very numerous at St. Paul 
. Island, and here seals may be found asleep in all sorts of strange 
retreats on the cliff-sides, whence, if unexpectedly disturbed, they 
will often jump blindly down a steep incline, facing a fall that 
would killa man. The little pups, too, are very fond of lying asleep 
with their heads, or sometimes their whole bodies in holes, under rocks. 
When disturbed they rush in hot haste, “ baaing” lustily, in any 
direction in which at the time their nose happens to be turned, not 
looking in the least to see whither their precipitate flight will lead 
them. 
Robben Island—Comparison of Mr. Elliot?’s Observations. 
My first acquaintance with the Fur Seal was gained at Robben 
Island, and a mere glance at the little rookery there was sufficient to 
show that neither is the animal, as a whole, deserving of the reputa- 
tion for intelligence with which Mr. W. H. Elliott has clothed it, nor 
is the cow the sweet-tempered, dove-like creature which the same 
writer has described. Not only were the bulls exceedingly active and 
constantly engaged in rushing blindly hither and thither, utterly regard- 
less as to whether they trampled the cows or pups under their flippers, 
but the cows, although they sat huddled closely together as if in a state 
of affectionate good-fellowship, were constantly snapping at each other 
in a bad-tempered manner, and savagely resented the approach of all 
pups except their own. A dead pup which I picked up at some little 
distance from the rookery showed, on examination, that it had received 
a bite, probably from a cow, on the head, where the punctures made 
by two canine teeth were plainly visible in the thick skin. The 
greater part of the head was in a rotten and putrid condition as if a 
fatal erysipelas had set in as a result of the bite. 
